Special Reports

Good and accessible healthcare was one of the key poll agendas of the Aam Aadmi Party. It is now opening over 1,000 neighbourhood clinics to improve basic healthcare facilities in the national capital. It wants to improve accountability and transparency in providing treatment to people.

Too many people die or become infected when seeking medical treatment in hospitals and other health care facilities in India. Typically, these healthcare-associated infections are a result of unhygienic practices at medical facilities, including ambulatory surgical centres, hospice centres and nursing homes. More often than not, these infections could easily be prevented. Currently, India does not have a national registry to record and track these hospital-based infections, which means there is little way to know actual burden of infections in hospitals.

Insufficient funding for tuberculosis (TB) research has put on hold good ideas and energy of individuals and those dedicated to end this oldest known infectious disease that claims millions of lives and impacts million others annually.

Official data shows that 9.29 lakh doctors are registered with the Indian Medical Registrar. An investigation through RTI by Health Analytics India reveals that a number of doctors are absent from their jobs from years and the government doesn’t have much clue about them either. In Kerala alone, which boasts of some of the best healthcare indicators in the country, 118 doctors have been absent from duty for the past 15 years.

A medical school admission examinations scandal in Madhya Pradesh has turned into India’s biggest and deadliest scam with thousands of arrests, mysterious deaths and the suspected involvement of top politicians.

Data collected from the states, interviews with several whistleblowers and doctors reveal data collection is deeply flawed, primarily because local officials are submitting incomplete data which mask depth of the deadly disease.